Satellite digital radio broadcasters, such as, for example, Sirius XM Radio Inc. (“Sirius XM”), currently offer well over a hundred channels of content over a large geographic footprint. A portion of that content can include data services that interoperate with existing GPS-based navigation services commonly available for use in automobiles, for example. Such data services can include, for example, traffic data, such as road obstructions, congestion, hazards due to weather, and other road conditions. For example, Sirius SXM has operated real time traffic data services for premium navigation systems since 2004. These services provide a subscriber with real-time traffic information, enabling a vehicle's navigation system or Personal Navigation Device (“PND”) to display constantly refreshed and current traffic conditions. However, for the large portion of the existing and future markets that do not or will not have access to GPS-based navigation systems, these data services are useless.
In a typical satellite radio service configuration of approximately 100 channels or more, nearly 50 channels provide music with the remaining stations offering news, sports, talk and data. For example, the broadcast services provided by Sirius SXM Radio Inc. each include a satellite X-band uplink to two or more satellites which provide frequency translation to the S-band for re-transmission to radio receivers on earth within a coverage area. Radio frequency carriers from one of the satellites are also received by terrestrial repeaters. The content received at the repeaters is retransmitted at a different S-band carrier to the same radios that are within their respective coverage areas. These terrestrial repeaters facilitate reliable reception in geographic areas where geosynchronous satellite reception is obscured by tall buildings, hills or other natural obstructions, tunnels, or other obstructions. The signals transmitted by the satellites and the repeaters are received by satellite digital audio radio system (“SDARS”) receivers which can be located in automobiles, in handheld units, or in stationary units for home or office use. The SDARS receivers are designed to receive one or both of the satellite signals and the signals from the terrestrial repeaters and dynamically combine or select one of the signals to output to a user.
Each SDARS receiver generally contains a unique Hardware Identification number (HWID), which is assigned during the manufacturing process. The HWID can be used by SDARS Service Providers to enable the receiver to receive, or disable the receiver from receiving, particular subscribed services such as music and talk programming. In addition, these subscribed services can include data services, such as, for example, weather and traffic data feeds or other custom data feeds. Such custom data feeds are typically uniquely enabled by the SDARS Service Provider for select subscriber groups.
Although existing telematics systems using cellular and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, such as, for example, the General Motors On-Star system, currently track vehicles and provide services such as dispatching emergency road side assistance upon detection of certain detected events at the vehicle, no current system graphically provides enhanced data services independently of a navigation system, which typically requires additional memory and resources to operate.
Additionally, current navigation services store databases of maps and other data and rely on complicated navigational systems, routing engines, embedded map databases and other resources to provide their information to users, all of which adds complexity and cost.
What is needed in the art are systems and methods of providing traffic data services in an automotive environment without requiring, or being dependent upon, GPS-based navigation systems